The present invention relates to wrenches, and more specifically, to a box and ratchet wheel arrangement for wrench, which is easy to install and, can positively secure the workpiece to the ratchet wheel.
A regular socket wrench has a box at one end adapted to hold a socket for grasping and turning a bolt or nut. In order to positively secure the hexagonal coupling head of the socket in the hexagonal coupling hole of the box, a holding down arrangement is provided. As illustrated in FIG. 5, the box of the wrench has steel balls arranged around the hexagonal coupling and supported on a respective spring member, and the hexagonal coupling head of the socket has a rounded recess in each of the six peripheral sidewalls for engagement with the steel balls in the box of the wrench. This design is functional. However, the complicated processing procedure of making holes in the box of the wrench for the spring members and the steel balls greatly increases the manufacturing cost of the wrench. Further, the installation of the spring members and the steel balls requires much labor.
The present invention has been accomplished to provide a box and ratchet wheel arrangement, which eliminates the aforesaid drawbacks. It is one object of the present invention to provide a box and ratchet wheel arrangement, which simplifies the fabrication of the wrench, and enables the workpiece to be positively secured to the ratchet wheel of the wrench. To achieve these and other objects of the present invention, the box and ratchet wheel arrangement comprises a wrench body with a box at one end, a ratchet wheel mounted in the box and adapted to hold the workpiece in a serrated center coupling hole thereof, a stop block mounted in the box and forced by a spring member to engage the ratchet wheel and to control the direction of rotation of the ratchet wheel, and a retainer ring of resilient metal mounted in an outside annular groove of the ratchet wheel, the retainer ring having a plurality of protruded retaining portions inserted through respective radially extended through hole of the ratchet wheel and adapted to hold down the workpiece in the serrated center coupling hole of the ratchet wheel.